John stephenson



(No Model'.)

J. STEPHENSON. GAR TRAGK GUARD.

No. 403,302., Patented May 14, 1 89.

(Mime/mm,

qwwwemo 351, 7% abtomw M-Mf I X412 w UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

JOHN STEPHENSON, OF NEIV YORK, N. Y.

CAR-TRACK GUARD.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent l lo. 403,302, dated May 14, 1889.

Application filed July 20, 1888. Serial No. 280,514. (No model.)

To aZZ whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, JOHN STEPHENSON, a citizen of the United States, residing at New York, in the county and State of New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Oar-Track Guards, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact specification.

The velocity with which cable cars move is apt to deceive persons 011 the street, causing accidents sometimes fatal. It is therefore important to have a guard spread over the track beyond the wheels. Guards have been used suspended from the car-body; but such are inefficient because of the large space above the street-surface at which the lower margins of such guards are placed to provide for the crush of the carsprings and tossing motion of the car-body. Experience. has shown that such guards have caused accidents to terminate fatally which would otherwise have been less serious.

My invention consists in means for obviating these difficulties, and said means are fully set forth hereinafter, and illustrated in the accompanying drawings, in which Figure 1 is a plan of sufficient of a tramcar' to illustrate my invention. Fig. 2 is a side elevation.

A cable car has been devised well adapted to carry a track-guard adjusted as near the road-bed surface as desired, and I make use of such a car to so support the guard that it may be held in unvarying elevation, unless necessary to surmount some overcomable obstacle, and in such case accomplish the result by automatic action.

My invention assumes that there is a truck having its sills suspended beneath the axleboxes 3 by pendants 4, integral with the boxshells, and the ends of the truck-sills extend-- ing endward beyond the axle-boxes. To such extended sills is appended a fence or guard, 130, reaching from side to side of the track, and from the sill ends extending in advance of the truck. The fence part of the guard may be a straight line or any deviation therefrom, but preferably the two sides of an angle, with the point central with the central line of the car, or over the slot-rail, each leg of the angle connected with an end of a truck-sill. There is a connection, preferably articulated, permitting the nose of the guard to be elevated by any overcomable obstruction, and the guard when in normal position sustains itself with its nose above contact with the road-bed. One jointed connection is shown, the joints being formed by pivots.

Joint-irons 132 are connected with the truck-sills by the bolts 131 near the end of each sill 5, or preferably there is one long bolt, each end constituting a pivot, uniting the ends of the adjacent joint and sill. Each joint-iron is secured to one end of the guard, and the other end of each joint-iron, after passing the joint-bolt, continues along the vertical face of the sill end for a desired distance and turns under the sill to form a finger, 132, so as to contact with the sill and prevent the outer end of the joint-iron with its fence-section from falling nearer the track than desirable. The central part of the long bolt may be utilized, by surrounding it with a pipe or tube, 133, of determined length, to fit between the truck-sill ends, adapted to prevent them from being forced nearer to each other, whilethe long bolt secures the sill ends from spreading.

The construction is strengthened by having the sill ends banded with iron, through which the joint-bolts pass.

I do not here claim the arrangement of the sills and boxes and the construction of the truck-frame shown, as the same constitute the subject of a separate application for Letters Patent, Serial No. 250,508.

I claim 1. A car having a truck-frame supported at the ends of the axles by pendants integral with the axle-box shells, and having the trucksills extending endward before the car-wheels, with a car-track guard pivoted to the ends of the truck-sills'and adapted to automatically push from the track accidental-obstructions and overcome surmountable obstacles, substantially as described.

2. A car-track guard extending across the track in advance of the car-wheels and jointed to the sills, the wings of the guard provided with metal joint-plates extending beyond the In testimony whereof I have signed my Wings and joint-bolts and continuing along name to this specification 1n the presence of IO the truck-sills, with the ends of the jointtwo subscribing witnesses.

plates bent under the sills and adapted to 1 T) T 5 Contact with the sills t0 counterpoise the JOHN S1 M HENDOL? track-guard and hold its guard at its desired \Vitnesses:

elevation above the road-surface, substan- CHARLES E. FOSTER,

tially as shown and described. STUART A. STEPHENSON. 

